revisiting something old
The toolmaker koan is the idea that an intelligent species will develop tools before it develops the wisdom to use them responsibly. Looking back, it’s an idea that has crossed my desk on more than one occasion; I’ve included some links to previous appearances below, for any who might be interested.
Every time I watch the news these days, the koan is front and center in many of the stories.
We’ve been living with the koan and its consequences for the past few centuries. My knowledge of history is not sufficiently strong to allow me to say which is the human invention, which first tool, that might be the point at which the koan took hold.
Perhaps part of the koan is that there are many inventions, many tools, that provide positive good for humanity for some time, before the consequences requiring mitigation make their appearance felt.
This might be the case with the wide variety of plastics. Malleable, infinitely useful, plastics permeate our modern life but, from what reading I’ve done, we are now beginning to understand some of the consequences of our development use of plastics. But this will require more investigation, more research. More understanding.
Beyond the physical inventions, are there ideas that we, the collective we, are still trying to understand? I suspect there are, but this again is something requiring further research.
Going back to my previous post here, I suspect this might be a project and not a small one. I stand on the edge of the abyss of this idea and stare in, and as the philosopher told us would happen, I see the idea starting back out at me.
OLD POSTS.
the toolmaker koan, revisited yet again
further consideration of the Toolmaker Koan
building on old foundations
how the little green men might defeat us humans 5
cognitive decline and the feeling of power
reading in hindsight: The Weapon by Fredric Brown
multijimbo 